Abhishek Bachchan is back on the silver screen with Anurag Kashyap’s millennial love story Manmarziyaan. The trailer has been extremely well received and so has the music. As the film hits the screens, Abhishek gets candid about his two-year hiatus, the edge that Anurag Kashyap brings to a film, and dealing with trolls.
Q. I’d imagine that in today’s time crafting a love story would be extremely difficult because your usual conflicts like rich girl- poor boy, or parents disapproving of your relationship are no longer tropes you can use. What makes Manmarziyaan different?
Abhishek Bachchan: Firstly, I don’t agree with the fact that we don’t have those old tropes. I think they’re still extremely prevalent, its just that people don’t seem to choose to make a movie on that. Having said that, what makes it different is Anurag’s approach to what he was going to do and how he wanted to do it, and that’s when I knew that I definitely wanted to be a part of this film. I knew Anurag would bring a new spin to a love story.
At the end of the day, it is a love triangle and how many different ways can you show a love triangle? One thing is for sure, you know Anurag Kashyap is going to do something different with it. Also Anurag doing a love story - it doesn’t really gel easily - and that was interesting to do.Abhishek Bachchan, Actor
I was like how interesting for Anurag to do a love story that is produced by Aanand L. Rai! They’re a wonderful mix of different minds and styles - that excited me and I hope we have managed to do something new and exciting. But coming back to what you said earlier, approach and style might change but certain themes are not going to change. Even today, if you make a poor-boy-and-rich-girl love story and if it’s done nicely and intensely, it is going to be a huge hit. Somewhere certain stories just work. I’d heard very long ago, and in fact Mr Javed Akhtar told me that basically at the end of the day, there are only seven stories on earth and they are just told in different ways.
Q. Anushka Sharma, who’d worked with Anurag on Bombay Velvet, said in an interview that working on an Anurag Kashyap film really made her feel like an ‘actor’ and that she enjoyed her craft more than she ever did earlier. What is it that he does differently?
Abhishek: I wouldn’t be able to comment on his approach with actors on other films, but what I can say about Manmarziyaan, is that he is a very generous director. He gives you a lot of space and time and allows you your own interpretation of a particular scene.
He likes to just sit back and react to your performance emotionally as opposed to react to it like a director. So he’d say do what you have to do. If the scene is working then its fine, if not we can work at it. It’s very empowering and liberating and then to see how he slowly moulds that performance is a wonderful process.
He allows you as an actor to go on a journey of self-discovery of that character. Like I said when a director is not shoving direction down your throat, it kind of forces you to do your own work on that character and on the scene, and I think that’s what he works towards.
Q. Manmarziyaan is releasing after a gap of two years for you. Has the break helped you look at scripts differently or do instincts just not change?
Gut instincts never change and they shouldn’t.
You have to react to a script emotionally and instinctively. If it doesn’t work instinctively and emotionally you shouldn’t do it. So that never changed, but I think maybe the approach or the process of how I was going to work changed. It wasn’t so much about the work that I was doing... it was about how I was doing that work that I wasn’t happy with.
Q. Was it also because today being a star is so much more than just doing movies? You’ve got PR, social media, events. How do you disconnect from all this when you’re getting into a film? Was that also why you felt you couldn’t put in your best?
Abhishek: No, not really. I do understand that there is a requirement from a film actor but the basis of it, the foundation is that you have to do good work. If you’re not doing good work then none of the other stuff is important.
Q. But then do you feel like you’re disconnected from reality? Doesn’t it become difficult to get into a character because there are so many externals?
Abhishek: No, it really doesn’t change anything for me, because your concentration has to be on your work. All the paraphernalia that comes with being a film actor or becoming a star, only comes if you are a good actor, if you can deliver on-screen and at the box office. Don’t buy into the other stuff, that’s all transitional. Personally, I’ve always managed to take things in my stride. It also has to do with your priorities. If your priority is to go walk on a red carpet, cut ribbons, then you focus on that.
My priority has been something else because my theory or my justification for the whole thing was that if I would do good work, then the rest of the stuff will follow.
Q. So you’ve done your best while working on a film, but the thing about the movie business is that your failure is extremely public, and it takes time for movies to get made. So, it’s a long gap before you have a hit film in hand. After 18 years in the industry, are you able to detach yourself or is it just as heartbreaking?
Abhishek: Taking your example, if you write one bad piece, it might be forgiven, but two bad pieces and your job is at stake. So it’s just as hard for you because it’s your livelihood. Its just that my world is slightly bigger than yours because I reach out to a bigger audience.
Nobody wants to be out of a job, everybody wants to move on to their next job, everybody wants to be a guaranteed a future in doing what they love doing. For that you have to be on top of your game. That’s life, its no different in the films.
Q. But is the heartache any lesser or do you become more thick-skinned?
Abhishek: I don’t want to be insulated, I want to feel, I want to hurt because if I’m insulated, it is not going to bother me whether my films are working or not and then it doesn’t matter. But it has to matter, because only when it matters will I push myself do better.
Q. You have the smartest replies to trolls on social media. Hits and flops aside, you’ve proven yourself as an actor. Why do you feel the need to reply to them?
Abhishek: So once in a while I reply to some of them, I don’t reply to them everyday. Just once in a while you want to set the record straight, if someone is acting over smart you put them in their place. The thing about social media is that its a two-way street, if you have the liberty to pass judgement, I have the liberty to react.
Q. But all this noise really doesn’t bother you?
Abhishek: Well, it depends on how much you read. And in a way it’s also important, because it keeps you grounded, right? A part of you is also in dilemma because this is your audience, this is what they might be thinking about. And it’s my job as an actor to take note of that. Even if one person doesn’t like my work, it’s my duty to attempt to try and change their mind. So that’s the way I look at it, I’m not going to be arrogant and be like you’re one in a million. No it matters to me, I want everyone to love and appreciate my work and say ‘well done’. So that’s how it’s going to be and it’s not going to change.
You can’t disrespect somebody for their opinion. If you have an opinion and managed to debate their point of view, and they come back with an abuse or a weak answer, you know there’s no basis to it.
Q. Most of these trolls also seem to be about being a ‘star son’ which is very much in the news today. What I want to know is that when you’re living a cushioned life with everything being taken care of, how do you then play someone like Robbie?
Abhishek: You’re an actor, you have to. You have to act. Would you ask that question to say a first-time actor and say, comes from lesser means and is playing a business tycoon? See, you’re here to do your job convincingly and in order to do that, you do whatever preparation is needed. It has never been a hurdle for me to inhabit the world that my characters have been in.
You know, I’m a Mumbai born and bred boy, educated in Europe and then America. I came back and then played a village boy in a film like Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost, where there is no similarity. But that’s what acting is about, you discuss with your director and your team about what’s working and what’s not. So it’s a process, it’s never been like ‘Oh how am I going to play this person, I don’t know anything about this guy’. Then you make it your duty to know something about that guy!
Q. So whats next for you? Manmarziyaan seems to be the beginning of a new chapter.
Abhishek: Lots and lots of work. It’s a new chapter, so it better be full of writing, right? So I’m just looking forward to lots more work.